Mississippi River Bridge Closed At Memphis

Bell South ^ | 8-27-2007

[blam]

Miss. River Bridge Closed at Memphis

Published: 8/27/07, 1:06 PM EDT

WEST MEMPHIS, Ark. (AP) - Officials shut down a major Mississippi River bridge Monday after one of its piers settled nearly 4 inches during the night in a construction zone.

The pier that settled is between two other piers, so the Interstate 40 bridge was still supported. The most motorists might have noticed on the six-land span would have been a slight dip, officials said.

"We want to be proactive and take all the traffic off the bridge so that our inspectors can take a very thorough look at the structure before making any further decisions," said Paul Degges, chief engineer of the Tennessee Department of Transportation.

The bridge links West Memphis to Memphis, Tenn. Traffic was diverted to the nearby I-55 bridge crossing the river.

Earlier this month, the eight-lane I-35W bridge over the same river in Minnesota collapsed, killing 13 people. That bridge was undergoing repairs when it fell during the evening rush hour, dropping dozens of cars more than 60 feet into the Mississippi.

Highway officials said the Arkansas-Tennessee bridge's pier had settled 3.5 inches and the bridge would be closed at least into Tuesday. The six-lane span carries 35,600 vehicles a day. The I-55 bridge carries 44,700 vehicles per day.

Workers have been improving the I-40 bridge to make it safer in case of earthquakes. The New Madrid fault runs through the area.

"That is the area where they are doing the seismic retrofitting on the West Memphis side," said Glenn Bolick, a spokesman for the Arkansas Highway and Transportation Department, said of the pier that settled.

Arkansas State Police referred questions to highway officials.

[Spktyr]

I think you’re being more than a little paranoid about that.

Besides, if they were going to do that, they’d do it around St. Louis.